Rift over job creation policy

Date: 18/04/1996

By Michael Mann

AS European Commission President Jacques Santer prepares to take the next step in his campaign for an EU-wide 'confidence pact' at a round table in Brussels later this month, key differences are emerging over the approach to be taken to job creation.

The social partners have responded positively to the initiative, welcoming it as a crucial step in generating confidence and trust between employers and workers.

But some of those invited to the event are sceptical about whether serious progress can be made in a two-day forum to be attended by more than 70 people.

As the various groups finalise their positions for the meeting to be held on 28-29 April, it is clear they are still approaching what is acknowleged to be the greatest problem facing the Union from quite different perspectives.

The round table, one of many elements of Santer's much-heralded 'confidence pact', will bring together the most senior officials of 11 umbrella organisations representing all sides of the employment debate.

The Commission wants the conference to focus on four themes: labour market flexibility, labour costs and social security, education and training, and other mechanisms for job creation.

Each of the 11 groups is now putting the finishing touches to its submission to the debate based on a detailed Commission questionnaire.

Still struggling to persuade member states of the need to divert unused farm spending to the fight against unemployment, Santer wants the round table to lay the basis for closer cooperation between the social partners, who have traditionally been seen as having antagonistic views on employment policy.

European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) officials are determined that the meeting should devise a definite strategy in the run-up to a tripartite meeting of industry and union representatives with finance and employment ministers in June.

The ETUC will stress that job creation policies must go beyond employers' preoccupations with labour market regulations and look at the broader macro-economic situation.

“Unions in a number of countries have already accepted wage moderation. As far as labour market policies are concerned, we've done our job. Now it's up to the other side to do theirs,” commented an ETUC spokesman, who pointed out that a generally positive economic climate was not being converted into jobs.

A spokesman for European employers' federation UNICE said its members would be stressing that the key to creating jobs lay in improving efficiency and competitiveness.

The federation, which will have a large delegation made up of all its national presidents at the round table, will also underline the important role played in job creation by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

UEAPME, which claims to represent the majority of SMEs within the EU and has repeatedly refuted UNICE's argument that it fulfils that purpose in the social dialogue, is due to discuss its definitive position this week.

But it is certain to underline the importance of supporting small business by pointing to figures showing that employment in the SME sector has increased by about a million jobs over the past three years, while it has declined in large firms.

The diversity of views is further highlighted by the Confédération Européenne des Cadres (CEC), which represents Europe's managers and executives. The CEC will tell the meeting of its trust in current structural policies and confidence in monetary union and the Maastricht Treaty's convergence criteria. “We don't expect the meeting to find a solution, because if there was one we'd be carrying it out by now. But the round table will be useful in generating confidence and trust between the different players,” said a CEC official.

This sentiment was echoed by an ETUC official. “It would be optimistic to expect too many concrete measures to come out of our meeting, but it should at least show that the social partners are willing to move in a certain direction,” he said.

But the round table is unlikely to do much to ease concern in some quarters that the sheer volume of initiatives to bolster employment could hinder rather than help the situation.